10
THE BELIZE TIMES
A +C
11 DEC
2016
by Yasser Musa
A BURNING VIOLIN
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic ‘til I’m gathered safely in – Leonard Cohen The first show of the Belizean Women’s Art Collective titled RADICAL comes weeks after Donald Trump won the American presidency. We live in a world of absurd contradictions, bizarre distortions and feigning frivolity. So it is urgent that artists rise up and disrupt the social space to offer voices that seriously address the taking charge of our lives. The concept of a collective is hard to comprehend in an era of extreme individual self-promotion and exposure. These women are fearless foragers inside a shopping mall of digital paradoxes. Belize is still yet to shed its hyper misogynistic and blatant male dominated cultural entrenchment, so this small band of BWACs offer not just hope in the face of social melting and insanity, but an opportunity to seek some clarity about what our lives are really about, and how we could pursue some tangible concepts of deep revolutionary thinking. The works in RADICAL are new, freshly made interventions of dramatic force and feeling: Miriam Antoinette’s assemblages speak to personal liberation and transformation created from detritus material. Briheda Haylock offers a new video about the light in our lives asking, is the light real? Minita Concha’s works are graphically razor
sharp disruptions delivering coherent symbolism full of deep social charge. Katie Usher’s piece Suffer Not the Childr merges the quiet melancholy of knitting with the stand up for your rights attitude of the strongest public protest lyrics. Stacy Ann delivers a sharp illustrative painting full of energy and power. Bianca Isabella’s work utilizes anime influence to evoke an emotionally elegant sensual engagement. Karla Giovanna features the female form in a kind of paradoxical posture, floating free yet bounded at the wrists. The group is mentored and inspired by the noted Canadian artist from Cristo Rey, Cayo Winsom Winsom. Her influence is an important harnessing of the incredible energy and enthusiasm of the group. RADICAL is a breakthrough exhibit because it is independent, it is social, and it is collective. Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to witness the long threads on their Messenger. What strikes me most is a spirit of reciprocity emerging. Whenever we come together there is risk because our culture forces us everyday unto a reservation of mistrust. The human collective contract is constantly under threat, so it is vital we point to acts of collective support. Art is a precious personal act, but it is done within a social system. The collective is a celebration of our deepest definition of humanity. Just saying we are together is a most precious acknowledgement of being artists. RESPECT to the BWACs!